Today, the selection of software worldwide is greater than ever – from applications covering simple business processes to complex business management systems. However, custom software development is once again becoming increasingly popular. In this article, we'll review the main reasons and advantages of custom software / applications.
• Tailored specifically to your business
If an existing software solution on the market fully meets your business needs, then it's a good choice. Today we can find numerous high-quality products, so you just need to select the right one.
However, every business, even those operating in the same field, works differently, has different processes and implementation methodologies. Very often, even a very attractive solution on the market has certain shortcomings, without which choosing an existing product becomes less than the best decision for a company.
In such cases, developing a custom solution helps solve this problem.
Custom software stands out primarily because it is developed specifically for your business and according to your business processes, so you can be certain you'll receive a product that fully meets your company's needs.
• You own it
The market experiences mergers, sales transactions, and there are cases when a popular solution you're using is acquired by other companies and they change its concept, development direction, or pricing.
When you develop a custom solution – it belongs only to your business.
• Unlimited possibilities
Even the largest and best software solutions on the market don't have all the features a business needs. Often, when choosing universal solutions, only 20-30% of its capabilities are utilized, while the rest remains unused and irrelevant to your business, yet there's a large percentage of things missing for the system to fully meet business needs.
When creating a custom application, the possibilities for functionality and integrations are unlimited.
• Scalability
As a business grows, so do its needs. Using an off-the-shelf solution today, your needs may have changed by tomorrow, so the product you've been using until now may suddenly become unsuitable and limit your business growth opportunities.
With a unique software solution, scalability options are unlimited. At any time, you can expand, develop, add new required functionalities or adjust existing ones, perform new integrations or extend them by connecting more and more data from other systems.
• Cost
Using an existing solution is almost always cheaper in the short term and if a small number of users are using the program. The majority of off-the-shelf solutions are based on a monthly fee per user. If one user in your company uses the system, the costs are usually minimal, but when a large number of users use the system, the monthly or annual costs become very high.
Example:
System X, used by 300 company employees, costs 30 EUR/month. Per month this amounts to 9,000 EUR, per year – 108,000 EUR.
Such a sum can be a sufficient investment when creating your own software. In the long-term perspective, this is almost always more efficient and cost-effective.
• Speed
As needs change, implementation speed is very important. In many cases, when using an off-the-shelf solution, there is absolutely no possibility to make individual changes. Even if such a possibility exists, usually the negotiation process alone takes a very long time.
Having a unique solution in your own hands, you can make the necessary changes quite quickly and efficiently and use a system that meets your needs.
The right software helps a business work better, faster, and smarter. When the need for process digitization arises, in each case it is very important to properly analyze the situation, check the available solutions on the market, and decide whether it is better to choose an existing solution or create custom software.
Most often, the software development process is considerably longer and initially requires greater investments of both time and money, but it provides more freedom and is more cost-effective in the long run.